The Firmware Page

Hello - great forum tons of information. Here is the problem I am having:

I have installed Windows 7 via bootcamp on a 17'' MacBook Pro A1261 Model. I have updated the optical drive to a Blu-Ray drive, however, though Windows 7 recognizes the blu ray drive - performance when playing high definition content is poor. The drive can play back, however, it is limited to Multi-Word DMA 2 which is not fast enough to play back blu-ray in bootcamp (DVDs work fine). I work or a movie studio so viewing back HD content after authoring it in a non-mac environment would be nice.

The factory DVD Super Drive that comes with the Mac can run at Ultra DMA 4 when connected. It is a Matshita UJ-85J-C. For fun, I have placed this blu-ray drive in a PC notebook and the Dell picks it up at Ultra DMA 5, but when in the Mac - it only gets picked up as Multi-Word DMA 2 (16.67 Mbps).

My first thought was to ask:
If anyone knows how in the efi (rfit) shell I could enable DMA support for non Apple optical drive hardware. Since I make a lot of movies for post production companies and lately I have been using higher quality media files that require more storage than DVD discs - playback would be a great feature that wasn't so choppy. Therefore,

Then I thought:
Maybe the vendor of the Panasonic UJ-225 drive needs to be switched to the same one as the Apple Superdrive for it to allow full Ultra DMA mode 4. I looked up the device information and this is what I found: The device class guid for each device was the same: {4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} - So I thought that was great it matched. Then I looked at the Driver Key: {4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 (for the Super Drive) and it was exactly the same expect the ending for the (UJ-225s) was: \0008.

I then decided to try the MatshitaWinDump, again for fun, but really so I could use hex edit on the output (assuming I could fine a safe string to adjust the ending).

This was the output I received from the drive:

Windows dumper for Matshita DVD drives V1.02 by ala42, based on ben11's dump_mat
shita

Enter the drive letter of the Matshita drive to backup the firmware: d
You have selected the source drive d


dump_matshita V 0.2
Appear to have a matshita device MATSHITABD-RE UJ-225S Q210
dump 1
change_vendor_mode: rc 256 tries 2
dump 2
dump 3
dump 4
Reading a portion of the memory of the drive, assuming 32 bit address space
Finished reading firmware dump from drive
change_vendor_mode: rc 256 tries 2
read memory from device \\.\d:, saved in MATSHITABD-RE_UJ-225S___Q210_dump.dat
This file can not be flashed directly and must be converted first.

Press any key to continue . . .

From here I do not know where to go: I have opened the output .dat file in HxD, but have no idea where to change a string in order to ref-lash. Secondly I am not sure how to ensure the file gets converted before I attempt to flash.

I have hex edit hacked support for some wireless cards in the past to make them work with HP and IBM computers so I am familiar with the process (bios hacking), however, I have never tried it for an optical drive. I would really like to make this work and since the only thing I can adjust is the firmware of the optical drive in this situation, since Apple has locked down the other method and I do not know how to efi programming, I assumed I would make the new drive appear to be "the old drive".

Currently have UJ-225: in USB enclosure solves the problem, however, having a blu ray drive in the machine, working with windows, would be great. This would enable me to review my work quicker and not have to carry clunky enclosures between studio to studio.

On the Mac this is what happens:
Perfection with this drive - it read and writes blu-rays great. Just the PC side is where the problems are - so I carry a usb enclosure of the drive around too while I have one installed in the optical bay of the MacBook Pro.

Thanks for any help and suggestions you may have. I hope somehow we can find a solution. I have the .dat output please let me know if you need me to pm you the file for investigation.

Why do you think that would have anything to do with "bios hacking"??


You should start with basic things, eg. examining the event viewer entries and logs.

It's well known that MACs still are different when it comes to drive exchange, especially with optical drives. Its like with Laptops in general.
And last but not least the used software for BD playback is very important!!

The event logs on the Windows side show no particular reason for the downgraded DMA speed of the blu-ray drive when used internally.

Blu-Ray playback is coming from Cyberlink PowerDVD 11. Blu-ray play back is choppy on the internal drive, but with a UJ-225 in USB enclosure - is perfect. Since the internal drive does not link up more than Multi-Word DMA 2 - there is not enough bandwidth when Blu-Ray playback become more intense.

The genuine Apple Drive - automatically syncs at Ultra DMA 4 - at this speed the Blu-Ray drive would be able to playback High Definition content perfectly.

For fun I installed a NEC PATA dvd-burner into the computer. Again it only synced at Multi-Word DMA 2. It seems that only the Apple drives allow the machine in bootcamp mode to sync on the higher DMA speed. I am sure the bios of the MacBook Pro was designed to operate like this. Just like HP and IBM don't allow users to upgrade their wireless cards. Since I cannot alter the bios on this machine, due to it being embedded in the efi - I want to make the drive appear to be a Super Drive.

If I can upgrade the firmware on the drive so its "identity" appear like that of the previous drive and it works this will have solved my issue. Keep me posted on any other thoughts you may have.

No idea why it is acting like that under windooze.

Normally I'd say "replace the ide cable, it might be defective", but with Laptops things are trickier....and as you say, it works in Mac Os as it should.

There are some tricks to force the drive to UDMA4 mode within the registry, but I don't know if it would help here.

Even ms does have some articles about the UDMA issue, but maybe this could help you:
http://windows7themes.net/how-to-enable ... ows-7.html

I still think its an w7 problem.

I have gone through your suggestion, however, it did not solve the problem. The DMA settings you are referring to just allows the controller to switch the speed between PIO and DMA mode. PIO mode 4 is 16.67 mb while Multi-Word DMA 2 is also 16.67. With your suggestion the computer only switches it back and fourth between the PIO mode and the Multi-Word DMA (technically the same speed). I have tried this in the past and it did not help.

I have installed on the hard drive a new fresh OS of Windows 7 and the problem is still there. I then did a fresh install of Windows XP and the problem is there to. The emulated EFI bios Apple is using for bootcamp I feel safe in saying has locked down this feature to specific brands - similar to how HP and Lenovo lock down their wireless adapters.

I placed the UJ-225 drive in a Dell Vostro and it picked right up at Ultra DMA 5, put it in an HP Pavilion and it picked right up at Ultra DMA 4. The drive is capable of the speeds, however, I need to find a "work-around" to make the drive look like a "Apple UJ-shipped drive". I want to take extract the bio from the UJ-225 - modify the hex so it appears like the Apple Drive - and then I am fairly confident this issue will be solved. Let me know any additional input you may have. Thanks for your continued ideas.